A source on politics, war, the Middle East, Arabic poetry, and art.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Slate and Orientalist trash
Slate, like many other liberal-minded publications and websites in the US, suspend its liberalism when it comes to Muslims and Arabs. Look at this trash (the person she sites is a well-known pro-Hariri right-winger, by the way, who supported the candidate who received a whopping 1% of the Shi`ite vote in the last election): ""In Arabic poetry and in the Quran, camels are one of the greatest gifts, because they are a means of survival," Lokman Slim told me. "So it is an honor to sacrifice them for a guest." Or, he added, you could cynically interpret their slaughter as representing the bodies of Rafik and Saad Hariri—one assassinated physically, the latter politically. As I got into a taxi, I saw the camels' bright red blood running into the gutter and heard the click of a camera shutter as people took photos to commemorate the moment." Of course, the reporter knows neither Arabic or Persian but she talks to right-wingers and taxi driver. Long live Western journalism. (thanks Adam)